Sir, In your "Letters to the Editor" section (May 10th) Mr Sean Ryan wonders what was the medal which the Indian Sioux Chiel, Sitting Bull, was wearing on his death bed in 1890. It was the pro petri sede, given by Pope Pius IX to Lieutenant Myles Walter Keogh for his service in the Irish Battalion of St Patrick of the Papal army in 1860. After the struggle against the red shirts of Garibaldi, Myles Keogh, who was born in 1840 at Orchard, Co Carlow, went to America where he fought during the Civil War as ADC to General Stoneman of the Federal army. Following the defeat of the Confederacy, he was appointed as captain to the 7th US Cavalry and fought at the battle of Little Big Horn in 1876, where the Indian Sioux slaughtered all the soldiers and officers of General Custer's army. The Indian, Chief Sitting Bull, far from having been offered the pro petri sede medal by Myles Keogh, must, in all probability, have taken it from around the beck of the dead Irishman's body. The story is recalled in Maurice Hennessy's The Wild Geese, published in London by Sidgwick and Jackson, in 1973,
Mr Sean Ryan may be interested to hear that the Ireland Fund de France, which is the French branch of the International Confederation of the Ireland Fund, paid a vibrant homage, at its annual gala dinner, of February 16th, to the descendants of the Irish Wild Geese, who fought in the Irish Brigade in the service of France throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, in the Napoleonic wars and in the Franco Prussian war of 1870.
It is indeed a fine gesture to recall their endeavours and sacrifices in a museum. As such anyone interested in strengthening Franco Irish relations should give wholehearted support to the proposed Wild Geese Heritage Museum and the Wild Geese Library at Portumna Castle. Yours, etc.,
Chairman,
Ireland Fund de France, Boulevard J. F. Kenedy, Antibes.